Read Emily Taylor - The Teenage Mum Online
Authors: Vi Grim
Tags: #coming of age, #pregnancy, #emily taylor, #pregnancy and childbirth, #vi grim, #age 14 to adult, #the teenage mum, #young mum
Emily Taylor - The Teenage Mum (16 page)
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The stadium is jammed packed.
There's even people sitting around the rim of the roof, dangling
their feet over the edge. The warm up game, the final of the local
kids’ league kicks things off at sunset.
A vender carrying a
portable barbecue taps me on the shoulder. I get myself and the
girls a spit roasted guinea pig each and buy some flaming freshly
lasered slimeball for the boys. They love it and can't comprehend
that I just don't like it. I don't want to like it.
there's a break and the Rolling Stones bash out a few classics.
While they are big on Zwingly, they have yet to break into the
galactic music scene and no one has heard of them. They get a few
claps and cheers of encouragement from the crowd who's keen to see
a new act, even if their music is a bit weird.
The stadium lights dim and go
out, leaving us sitting in darkness. A feeling of hushed
expectation hangs over the stadium. A search light knives through
the darkness and picks out a sentry moon high above the stadium. It
slowly descends until it's hovering in the middle of the stadium,
high above the pitch.
'Great, it's Arcturus,' says
Azziz. 'I'm glad we've got him, he's the best referee in the
Galaxy!'
I'm not; last time he let a
slimeball in just for the sport of it.
The stadium lights come back on
and we can see the players, Szabo in maroon and navy and Psyche in
blue and white, in position on the pitch.
Poooop!
Arcturus blows his whistle and
the szabo kick off. The players take to the air, rapidly spreading
out to fill the stadium. The game is fast with the zinodes kicking
the ball in crisp, accurate passes with a flick of their powerful
tails.
A Psyche player makes a rough
tackle.
Boooop!
The game restarts with a second
ball coming into play.
Peep!
There's another foul and
another ball appears. Soon there's half a dozen balls in play and
it's hard to keep up with the action.
Pooooooop!
Szabo score. Play restarts back
on the pitch with a single ball. Psyche quickly equalise. It's
clear who's the crowd's favourite, they jump out of their seats
with a roar, going meters up in to the air then drifting slowly
back down again, hooting and hollering as they wave their Psyche
scarves. Once the stadium is quiet again, Arcturus restarts
again.
Poooop!
Bam! Wham!
I'm in my fighter in the middle
of the stadium. The slimeball explodes and we spin around and take
out another before it touches ground. My fighter lurches sideways
to avoid a torpedo then takes off at full speed after the Baron.
He's heading straight for Castor's moon. Dodging Castor's torpedoes
he fires a pulse of blue light which scores a direct hit, causing
the moon to pulse a couple of times and go out.
'Fart knockers,' curses Castor.
'A thermo-magnetic pulse, I'm out of action.'
'Save your kids, the guards are taking them.'
right and picks off a slimeball that's charging up the beach
towards them, fries another that's smashing through the beach
houses, then swivels to the left and torpedoes the stealth
spaceship.
I click my fingers and I'm on
the beach about five meters from the closest guard. Seeing me, he
lets go of River and raises his rifle. He never gets a shot in. I
cartwheel across the beach and he gets a 'don't mess with my kids'
kick to the throat. I catch his rifle as it falls and take the
other guard's head off.
A slimeball smashes to ground
in the shallows beside us covering us with water and slime. I'm
back in the fighter.
Blam!
Jesus, Azziz and the two girls
appear on the beach, grab the babies and teleport off somewhere
safe, probably Camillo.
spaceships, no slimeballs. I thank my fighter and teleport across
to see Castor. He looks embarrassed.
'Castor,' I say, giving him a
big kiss. 'Thank you so much. You saved my babies.'
Reddening up, Castor says, 'No,
you saved the people at the match, well most of them anyway, you
saved me, defeated the Baron and rescued your babies.'
'Thanks anyway,' I say, giving
him another kiss. 'Thank you for being you.'
I click my fingers and arrive
on the beach. I sit there in the dark, savouring the coolness of
the night air and feeling happy to be alive.
with the others right on sunrise and we have a long swim before
starting the big clean-up. There's a deafening roar that makes my
nose bleed and I watch as the dew drop stadium takes off and
disappears into space. Much as I like football, I think that it'll
be a while before Jesus and Azziz get me along to see another
match.
year old. Cosmo is a good choice of name because he has
superpowers. All babies have the superpower of charm. Cosmo has
oodles of it; it oozes from his every pore. His bright green eyes
catch you when you enter the room, lock on, and won't let go. Since
he first sat up, he's had a second power of attraction too; if he
wants an object, it just floats across the room and into his hot
little hands. Before I lost the plot over a chewed remote control,
which had the tele tuning into Arab soap operas at odd hours of the
night, he sat in the middle of the room like King Quanoot summoning
objects. He sat there, happy as Larry surrounded by books,
ornaments, the salt and pepper grinders, the remote controls and
whatever other small object had caught his eye, like a kid in a
lolly shop, wondering which thing to gum to death next. I glued the
ornaments down and put everything else away in drawers; that foxed
him. He doesn't need his superpowers anymore; he's walking. He does
the rounds of the house with his mate Vince, causing
havoc.
really pregnant. Not all of a sudden like, it's been sneaking up on
her for a while, but now she's there, ready to pop. Because her
last birth went so smoothly, we decide to do this one ourselves.
It's just too hard being good when Dr Florence is here. We've grown
to really like Florence, but she’s hard work. If it all turns to
custard, we'll bring her in, give her a strong cup of tea, and I'm
sure she'll be happy to sort things out.
When Annie's labour starts,
Azziz promptly heads out to shoot pool. He loves making babies, but
is not really into the whole fatherhood thing. He'll carry his kids
around, swing then about and throw them in the air, but as soon as
there's a pooey bottom or a blood and guts birthing, he's off like
a scolded cagoon.
giving too much of a fight and is soon sucking on Annie's boob
while Janice, Jesus and me cut the cord and inspect the afterbirth.
Idris is a bit of a funny shape to start with but once he's a few
weeks old and started filling out, we can see that we have another
demigod in the house. He's exactly the same as Cosmo, as if Annie's
been cloning them.
'Emily, this might interest you,' he says. 'Petra is getting
married.'
I'm up there in a flash. I love
a good wedding. It's great to see Petra too. Since she killed
Ariella and activated the power of The Book, it hasn't been
possible to watch over her. She looks about sixteen and with her
wild red hair and tanned, freckly skin, looks absolutely gorgeous.
I'm so jealous. She glows with the radiance of an expectant
mum.
'She's left The Book on Mulo.
That's why we can see her. She's marrying Angelo, who she fell in
love with on her travels.'
Castor flicks up an image of a
handsome dark haired boy with a shy smile. 'He's a fisherman's son
from the little island of Salina, just north of Sicily. They sailed
down from Mulo with Mario and Jasmina, her foster dad and mum, and
her twin brother and sister on this tiny sailing boat.' He flashes
up an image of the little cutter; similar to the one I saw her
sailing on years ago, but a meter or so longer.
'The tradition is to get
married where the bride lives but it's easier for the six residents
of Mulo to travel than the eight hundred and eighteen from
Salina.'
The girls would love this.
Jesus agrees reluctantly to look after the six kids. It's just that
time of day when they're tired and hungry and need feeding and
bathing, but we can't wait, the ceremony is about to start. I'm
sure he'll cope.
We arrive in Castor's cockpit
in a tangle of legs and arms and have to sit on top of each other
to fit in. Castor has a radar image of the town on his cockpit
screen.
Angelo, looking dashing in a
smart suit, is escorting Petra through the streets of Santa Marina
to the church, up on the hill.
'She's pregas,' says
Annie.
'It's going to be a boy,' says
Castor.
'Shut up,' I say. 'You always
spoil it.'
'Sorry,' says Castor. 'I just
love information.'
'You should have a gossip
column,' says Janice.
giving Castor a slap. 'I was trying to keep that quiet.'
old church. It's packed. Us girls go all gooey watching. After the
wedding they release doves outside the church and are showered with
confetti as they walk to the reception.
I wonder if I'll ever get
married, I doubt it.
We decide we've been nosey
enough for one day and leave them to it.
while I'm up here, I have a look at Ijju. I haven't seen her for
ages. As always, she's looking great. She's been busy, there's a
toddler, a little girl hanging onto her leg as she prepares dinner.
I look for her boy, who must be nearly four now, and find him
kicking a football around outside with Zula. It's such a lovely
sight. I'm so lucky to have him as father of my kids.
'Who's that?' asks Annie.
Oops! 'Just a friend,' I say
coyly.
Annie smiles and gives me a
wink
along the beach and find them at a large rock pool practicing kung
fu. I have trouble trying to keep the kids quiet for a moment while
the baby goes to sleep, and he has them doing kung fu! There's a
zinode swimming around on her back holding Idris, who is all but
asleep and the other five are walking across the large pool,
walking on water! The little two, Vinny and Cosmo, are holding
hands as they toddle across.
We stand and watch for a
moment, totally fascinated then, as usual, I blow it by opening my
big mouth, 'Jesus-'
The spell is broken and
the kids tumble into the deep pool as if falling through ice. The
toddlers go down to the bottom, while the others flail about on the
surface. I dive down and grab the little ones. Instinctively
holding their breath, the little ones are just fine.
One thing is clear, living
where we are, right by the beach; the kids should be able to swim.
It seems to be as good a moment as any, so the lessons start right
away. After all, you never know when you are next going to be
walking on the water and some stupid woman comes along and makes
you lose your concentration!
She's four. It's almost scary how fast she's growing up; she'll be
leaving home soon. I don't know what to get her. I visit Castor and
look through catalogues and rack my brains but just can't think of
anything. It takes a while, but I finally click. If she really
needed something she'd be telling me. Me hunting for a present is
just to make me feel good. It's as good a reason as any but I don't
get her anything. Does she complain and make me feel guilty? Of
course! Once she has recovered from the shock of not getting
something she didn't know she needed, we go shopping and eat lots
of yummy ice cream and buy her some grown up, four year old
clothes. If there is one thing I'll like to give her for her
birthday, it's her dad. With Jesus and Azziz around there are some
men in her life but they're not her dad; he's special.
There's even people sitting around the rim of the roof, dangling
their feet over the edge. The warm up game, the final of the local
kids’ league kicks things off at sunset.
A vender carrying a
portable barbecue taps me on the shoulder. I get myself and the
girls a spit roasted guinea pig each and buy some flaming freshly
lasered slimeball for the boys. They love it and can't comprehend
that I just don't like it. I don't want to like it.
there's a break and the Rolling Stones bash out a few classics.
While they are big on Zwingly, they have yet to break into the
galactic music scene and no one has heard of them. They get a few
claps and cheers of encouragement from the crowd who's keen to see
a new act, even if their music is a bit weird.
The stadium lights dim and go
out, leaving us sitting in darkness. A feeling of hushed
expectation hangs over the stadium. A search light knives through
the darkness and picks out a sentry moon high above the stadium. It
slowly descends until it's hovering in the middle of the stadium,
high above the pitch.
'Great, it's Arcturus,' says
Azziz. 'I'm glad we've got him, he's the best referee in the
Galaxy!'
I'm not; last time he let a
slimeball in just for the sport of it.
The stadium lights come back on
and we can see the players, Szabo in maroon and navy and Psyche in
blue and white, in position on the pitch.
Poooop!
Arcturus blows his whistle and
the szabo kick off. The players take to the air, rapidly spreading
out to fill the stadium. The game is fast with the zinodes kicking
the ball in crisp, accurate passes with a flick of their powerful
tails.
A Psyche player makes a rough
tackle.
Boooop!
The game restarts with a second
ball coming into play.
Peep!
There's another foul and
another ball appears. Soon there's half a dozen balls in play and
it's hard to keep up with the action.
Pooooooop!
Szabo score. Play restarts back
on the pitch with a single ball. Psyche quickly equalise. It's
clear who's the crowd's favourite, they jump out of their seats
with a roar, going meters up in to the air then drifting slowly
back down again, hooting and hollering as they wave their Psyche
scarves. Once the stadium is quiet again, Arcturus restarts
again.
Poooop!
Bam! Wham!
A sleek fighter
comes out of nowhere and blasts Arcturus's moon. It explodes
sending flaming wreckage crashing to the ground. It's the Baron,
the scumbag who shot down Castor. A slimeball evades the stadium's
defences and crashes to ground. It gobbles up a couple of players
and smashes into the crowd. It's coming straigh
t for us, cutting a broad swath through the
panicked crowd. I take a deep breath and think Zen.
I'm in my fighter in the middle
of the stadium. The slimeball explodes and we spin around and take
out another before it touches ground. My fighter lurches sideways
to avoid a torpedo then takes off at full speed after the Baron.
He's heading straight for Castor's moon. Dodging Castor's torpedoes
he fires a pulse of blue light which scores a direct hit, causing
the moon to pulse a couple of times and go out.
'Fart knockers,' curses Castor.
'A thermo-magnetic pulse, I'm out of action.'
The Baron stops
next to Castor's moon and turns to finish him off, 'This time
it's
adios
for you my slug.'
Big mistake
buddy, you may have the finest spaceship in the galaxy but you've
given me two seconds! My fighter flips him sideways, sending his
missiles astray then blasts and blasts and blasts him, again and
again. I've had enough of this space scum. Even as his spaceship is
falling from the sky, I keep shooting and shooting. It's
adios
for you, scumbag.
'Save your kids, the guards are taking them.'
In
the fighter's daylight display I can
see the guards dragging the kids along the beach to an angular
stealth spaceship. Each has a baby tucked under his arm and is
struggling to keep a grip on the other ones. They're so greedy;
they're taking them all.
right and picks off a slimeball that's charging up the beach
towards them, fries another that's smashing through the beach
houses, then swivels to the left and torpedoes the stealth
spaceship.
I click my fingers and I'm on
the beach about five meters from the closest guard. Seeing me, he
lets go of River and raises his rifle. He never gets a shot in. I
cartwheel across the beach and he gets a 'don't mess with my kids'
kick to the throat. I catch his rifle as it falls and take the
other guard's head off.
A slimeball smashes to ground
in the shallows beside us covering us with water and slime. I'm
back in the fighter.
Blam!
Jesus, Azziz and the two girls
appear on the beach, grab the babies and teleport off somewhere
safe, probably Camillo.
I blast a few
slimeballs then patrol above the stadium. It's pandemonium on the
ground. A hundred thousand people, and I use that term
people
loosely, all trying to get out of the stadium and off
Zwingly. Spaceships shoot in all directions, while slimeballs crash
to ground amongst the fleeing crowd. Pollux gets his moon
operational again and between us we get on top of
things.
spaceships, no slimeballs. I thank my fighter and teleport across
to see Castor. He looks embarrassed.
'Castor,' I say, giving him a
big kiss. 'Thank you so much. You saved my babies.'
Reddening up, Castor says, 'No,
you saved the people at the match, well most of them anyway, you
saved me, defeated the Baron and rescued your babies.'
'Thanks anyway,' I say, giving
him another kiss. 'Thank you for being you.'
I click my fingers and arrive
on the beach. I sit there in the dark, savouring the coolness of
the night air and feeling happy to be alive.
with the others right on sunrise and we have a long swim before
starting the big clean-up. There's a deafening roar that makes my
nose bleed and I watch as the dew drop stadium takes off and
disappears into space. Much as I like football, I think that it'll
be a while before Jesus and Azziz get me along to see another
match.
year old. Cosmo is a good choice of name because he has
superpowers. All babies have the superpower of charm. Cosmo has
oodles of it; it oozes from his every pore. His bright green eyes
catch you when you enter the room, lock on, and won't let go. Since
he first sat up, he's had a second power of attraction too; if he
wants an object, it just floats across the room and into his hot
little hands. Before I lost the plot over a chewed remote control,
which had the tele tuning into Arab soap operas at odd hours of the
night, he sat in the middle of the room like King Quanoot summoning
objects. He sat there, happy as Larry surrounded by books,
ornaments, the salt and pepper grinders, the remote controls and
whatever other small object had caught his eye, like a kid in a
lolly shop, wondering which thing to gum to death next. I glued the
ornaments down and put everything else away in drawers; that foxed
him. He doesn't need his superpowers anymore; he's walking. He does
the rounds of the house with his mate Vince, causing
havoc.
really pregnant. Not all of a sudden like, it's been sneaking up on
her for a while, but now she's there, ready to pop. Because her
last birth went so smoothly, we decide to do this one ourselves.
It's just too hard being good when Dr Florence is here. We've grown
to really like Florence, but she’s hard work. If it all turns to
custard, we'll bring her in, give her a strong cup of tea, and I'm
sure she'll be happy to sort things out.
When Annie's labour starts,
Azziz promptly heads out to shoot pool. He loves making babies, but
is not really into the whole fatherhood thing. He'll carry his kids
around, swing then about and throw them in the air, but as soon as
there's a pooey bottom or a blood and guts birthing, he's off like
a scolded cagoon.
giving too much of a fight and is soon sucking on Annie's boob
while Janice, Jesus and me cut the cord and inspect the afterbirth.
Idris is a bit of a funny shape to start with but once he's a few
weeks old and started filling out, we can see that we have another
demigod in the house. He's exactly the same as Cosmo, as if Annie's
been cloning them.
'Emily, this might interest you,' he says. 'Petra is getting
married.'
I'm up there in a flash. I love
a good wedding. It's great to see Petra too. Since she killed
Ariella and activated the power of The Book, it hasn't been
possible to watch over her. She looks about sixteen and with her
wild red hair and tanned, freckly skin, looks absolutely gorgeous.
I'm so jealous. She glows with the radiance of an expectant
mum.
'She's left The Book on Mulo.
That's why we can see her. She's marrying Angelo, who she fell in
love with on her travels.'
Castor flicks up an image of a
handsome dark haired boy with a shy smile. 'He's a fisherman's son
from the little island of Salina, just north of Sicily. They sailed
down from Mulo with Mario and Jasmina, her foster dad and mum, and
her twin brother and sister on this tiny sailing boat.' He flashes
up an image of the little cutter; similar to the one I saw her
sailing on years ago, but a meter or so longer.
'The tradition is to get
married where the bride lives but it's easier for the six residents
of Mulo to travel than the eight hundred and eighteen from
Salina.'
The girls would love this.
Jesus agrees reluctantly to look after the six kids. It's just that
time of day when they're tired and hungry and need feeding and
bathing, but we can't wait, the ceremony is about to start. I'm
sure he'll cope.
We arrive in Castor's cockpit
in a tangle of legs and arms and have to sit on top of each other
to fit in. Castor has a radar image of the town on his cockpit
screen.
Angelo, looking dashing in a
smart suit, is escorting Petra through the streets of Santa Marina
to the church, up on the hill.
'She's pregas,' says
Annie.
'It's going to be a boy,' says
Castor.
'Shut up,' I say. 'You always
spoil it.'
'Sorry,' says Castor. 'I just
love information.'
'You should have a gossip
column,' says Janice.
'I do,' replies
Castor. 'I contribute to
People
,
US Weekly
,
Hello
,
Voici
and
Chi.
I wrote that article about you and
Peter Tork-'
giving Castor a slap. 'I was trying to keep that quiet.'
old church. It's packed. Us girls go all gooey watching. After the
wedding they release doves outside the church and are showered with
confetti as they walk to the reception.
I wonder if I'll ever get
married, I doubt it.
We decide we've been nosey
enough for one day and leave them to it.
while I'm up here, I have a look at Ijju. I haven't seen her for
ages. As always, she's looking great. She's been busy, there's a
toddler, a little girl hanging onto her leg as she prepares dinner.
I look for her boy, who must be nearly four now, and find him
kicking a football around outside with Zula. It's such a lovely
sight. I'm so lucky to have him as father of my kids.
'Who's that?' asks Annie.
Oops! 'Just a friend,' I say
coyly.
Annie smiles and gives me a
wink
When we get
back, the house is empty. They're all gone and there's a wee note
on the table saying,
Along at
the rocks, J
.
along the beach and find them at a large rock pool practicing kung
fu. I have trouble trying to keep the kids quiet for a moment while
the baby goes to sleep, and he has them doing kung fu! There's a
zinode swimming around on her back holding Idris, who is all but
asleep and the other five are walking across the large pool,
walking on water! The little two, Vinny and Cosmo, are holding
hands as they toddle across.
We stand and watch for a
moment, totally fascinated then, as usual, I blow it by opening my
big mouth, 'Jesus-'
The spell is broken and
the kids tumble into the deep pool as if falling through ice. The
toddlers go down to the bottom, while the others flail about on the
surface. I dive down and grab the little ones. Instinctively
holding their breath, the little ones are just fine.
One thing is clear, living
where we are, right by the beach; the kids should be able to swim.
It seems to be as good a moment as any, so the lessons start right
away. After all, you never know when you are next going to be
walking on the water and some stupid woman comes along and makes
you lose your concentration!
She's four. It's almost scary how fast she's growing up; she'll be
leaving home soon. I don't know what to get her. I visit Castor and
look through catalogues and rack my brains but just can't think of
anything. It takes a while, but I finally click. If she really
needed something she'd be telling me. Me hunting for a present is
just to make me feel good. It's as good a reason as any but I don't
get her anything. Does she complain and make me feel guilty? Of
course! Once she has recovered from the shock of not getting
something she didn't know she needed, we go shopping and eat lots
of yummy ice cream and buy her some grown up, four year old
clothes. If there is one thing I'll like to give her for her
birthday, it's her dad. With Jesus and Azziz around there are some
men in her life but they're not her dad; he's special.
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